Aircraft Accident Report
Delta
Air lines, Lockheed L-1011-385-1, N726DA,
Dallas/Fort Worth International
Airport, Texas,
August 2, 1985
NTSB Number AAR-86/05
NTIS Number PB86-910406
available in hardcopy
Executive Summary: On August 2, 1985, at 1805:52 central
daylight time, Delta Air Lines flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011-385-1, N726DA,
crashed while approaching to land on runway 17L at the Dallas/Fort Worth
International Airport, Texas. While passing through the rain shaft beneath a
thunderstorm, flight 191 entered a microburst, which the pilot was unable to
traverse successfully. The airplane struck the ground about 6,300 feet north of
the approach end of runway 17L, hit a car on a highway north of the runway
killing the driver, struck two water tanks on the airport, and broke apart.
Except for a section of the airplane containing the aft fuselage and empennage,
the remainder of the airplane disintegrated during the impact sequence, and a
severe fire erupted during the impact sequence. Of the 163 persons aboard, 134
passengers and crewmembers were killed; 26 passengers and 3 cabin attendants
survived.
The National Transportation Safety Board
determines that the probable causes of the accident were the flightcrew's
decision to initiate and continue the approach into a cumulonimbus cloud which
they observed to contain visible lightening; the lack of specific guidelines,
procedures, and training for avoiding and escaping from low-altitude wind shear;
and the lack of definitive, real-time wind shear hazard information. This
resulted in the aircraft's encounter at low altitude with a microburst-induced,
severe wind shear from a rapidly developing thunderstorm located on the final
approach course.
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